April 2023 Meet Artee

All good things must come to an end.  Hannah had travelled with us for about 100,00 miles.  She had been as far east as Nova Scotia.  She has been up the east coast, and down some of the east coast too.  She has visited the middle of our country, the south, and some of the north as well as a whole lot of Canada.  She has been on countless trips around California.  She has been a wonderful true friend.  But, towing a rig for that many miles (think 8.0 earthquake for 100,000 miles), takes its toll.  Things were going wrong.  Every time out, Spouse had to fix one thing or another.  When he opened the refrigerator and the door fell off in his hand, he had had enough!

Over time, we have always looked at other rigs just to keep up on what’s out there.  We have been on many an RV lot and looked at countless designs… countless useless designs!  So many of the designs looked mighty pretty, but functioned pretty lousy.  Gee, let’s get this nice faux fireplace, and in exchange, get rid of most of the kitchen counters!  Not even room to chop an onion!  Or maybe a huge salon with a huge TV, yet the bedroom has a tiny, itty bitty closet.  Or maybe the quality oozed out like on the rig that had the faux wood grain wall paper falling off the door.

If we could, we would get the exact layout and size as Hannah, in a newer model.  Problem is, that doesn’t exist.  IT DOESN’T EXIST!  We looked and looked.  The only thing that even came close was the Arctic Fox.  It has high quality, and a layout very similar to Hannah – in other words, FUNCTIONAL! 

She is 34 feet, instead of Hannah’s 31 feet.  That extra space really improves the bedroom big time.  I would not have bought a rig for that, but I will certainly enjoy that!  The shower is separate from the bedroom, which is nice.  But once again, I would not have bought the rig for that.  She is 6 inches wider, which really shows when she is all closed up as you have room to move around some.  This does make it more challenging to maneuver her around.  And all this extra room adds more weight.  She has only 2 sliders, which is all we wanted.

She has other bells and whistles.  She has two air conditioners which is something I will certainly enjoy passing through places like Laughlin, Mesquite, Mojave.  She has self leveling (requires a PHD, but Spouse is learning it all!).  She has a huge generator so we can live off the grid easily.  The previous owner admits he was anal in the maintenance.  The roof has been improved, the shade awning is automatic.

We had to figure out where to put Rudy’s water.  He didn’t have the same layout!  He wants a glass of water, not a bowl.  So, by the railing by the shower seems to work.  Out of the way for us, and he seems to be ok with it.

It has really nice leather furniture.  I hate leather.  The beautiful couch is now in our friend’s rig, as we bought another that is more suitable for us.  We kept the chairs, which are quite nice.  I will get use to the leather.  That’s why we have all these throw blankets that can serve as a liner!

We have taken her on a couple of short trips to work out the kinks, making improvements here and there.  I think now, she is ready to go.